The final countdown

The end of Platuxa 2014 is within sight. Tomorrow is the day in which we move on to the second chart. Because of scale preferences, we print the map of our study area in two charts, the second of which includes only the last 25 hauls in the upside down triangle which is the northeastern area of our study region. We are going there now, at 2130 in the evening and while Adriana, Bernardo, Iván and Juan sample the last and most abundant haul of a day, what a coincidence! Thus we will cruise all night at full speed to reach the northernmost position possible and start covering the remaining strata southwards. Captain tricks, he knows the Grand Bank as his very own living room. If we fish southwards we will do it with the current, saving a bit of time here and there. In this survey we need to spare as much time as we can, because sometimes the difference between squeezing in yet another haul is a matter of half an hour.

But today we had no problems with our schedule and we bagged seven hauls, three of which brought Greenland halibut (90 kg), berglax grenadier (even less) and eleven sad kilos of redfish. The other four hauls were mostly yellowtail flounder (about a ton) and American plaice (some 700 kg), the last haul was also sprinkled with cod. No record breaking catches today, but very good to our purpose.

The redfish catch today made me think that we have seen tons of it but I am uncertain the blog has ever told anything about them. True, it lacks the size and body shape of sperm whales and the charm of deepwater fish, but redfish species (there are several species) are the most colourful fish in the North Atlantic, with all their shades of red. And most interesting creatures they are! I'm sure you would have never guessed they are ovoviviparous: the eggs hatch within the female’s body and they give birth to larvae. This happens in the Irminger Sea, the Atlantic region SE of Greenland and SW of Iceland. Larvae of several redfish species reach the eastern Greenlandic platform and there starts much of the mystery surrounding redfish life. We don't know the proportion of juvenile redfish of each species, as they are extremely difficult to tell apart, and therefore we don't know their contribution to the different redfish stocks. Of redfish we also know that they live long lives if given the chance. However, we know little about their reproductive biology, population dynamics, migrations and location of the different life stages, factors affecting recruitment, population demography, natural mortality and lots of other details very relevant for their management. What should we do? Protect it until we learn everything we need to know? Or go for it? If you answered “yes” to the first question, congratulations for your common sense, but you are way too naïve. The fishery started in the Irminger Sea in 1991 with 59 t and by 1995 the maximum catch of 140000 tons had been reached. It has gone downhill ever since, but the fishery still exists. A pelagic gear known as GLORIA is used, characterised by an opening so big that it could take in several cathedrals.

For many reasons, this is a day to remember and the blog is giving some space to Nair, who apart from the CTDs and type the data has had her birthday. She could not bring her people over but we have pampered her as much as we could given the circumstances, and we publish her photo to show you. Nair's mother, see how beautiful and happy your daughter has been today and all the presents she got on board! Everything handmade!

Nair and redfish, guess who is who.

Big hug to Nair and an even bigger hug to our colleague Santomé. We'll stand by you, our friend.

L96:	44º 18.59 -	048º 52.42
L97:	44º 22.00 -	048º 55.34
L98:	44º 27.88 -	048º 57.68
L99:	44º 31.81 -	049º 08.21
L100:	44º 26.71 -	049º 23.94
L101:	44º 22.86 -	049º 18.73
L102:	44º 20.35 -	049º 06.09